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SLCL Employee Publishes Teen Novel

Date:

Wed, 03/27/2013 (All day)

Each year thousands of new books arrive at St. Louis County Library. One book, which is due to arrive in April, is being anticipated more than the others. "If He Had Been With Me" was written by one of the library's own employees, part time circulation assistant, Laura Rosener. Her pen name is Laura Rowlin.

"If He Had Been With Me," is a teen love story that takes place in St. Louis. Kirkus reviews says this about it, "The finely drawn characters capture readers' attention in this debut."

The book describes a lifelong friendship between two teens, Finn and Autumn. Here is the description from www.qbd.com.au. "A love story spanning the history of two teenagers' lives and all the moments when if one little thing had been different, their futures would have been together instead of apart." It is a sad story of what-ifs, and with all the angst a real teen relationship experiences. The story came to Laura in a dream from which she awoke, got up and immediately wrote the first chapter.

Laura, who has been with SLCL for three years, started writing when she was 16. She has B.A. in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Missouri State University where she contributed short stories to the Moon City Review. "If He Had..." is not her first novel, but it is the first to be published.

"Writing the first draft was like giving birth," Laura says. Several re-writes later, she and many of her co-workers, among others, look forward to the book's publication. There are already a few dozen holds on the copies St. Louis County Library has ordered.

Laura moved with her parents to St. Louis as a child. She attended McCluer North High School. She and her husband live in South St. Louis.

For more information about "If He Had Been With Me," visit www.laurarosener.wordpress.com/if-he-had-been-with-me/.